"Justice has been
done," Jack heard the magistrate declare somewhere in the distance,
but he was too dazed for the words to register. He was still staring
at the empty space that Carter had been standing in only moments
before.

"Son of a bitch,"
Jack swore, surging towards the edge, perfectly capable of jumping in
after her, but before he could get there he was grabbed him from
behind, once again disarmed and slammed down to the ground.

Over by Daniel, Cyrus
waved his hand at his guards. "Let the husband up."

Daniel popped up to his
feet, his eyes darting back and forth between the magistrate and the
river as if not sure what to do. Punch out the asshole or jump in
the river after Carter? Jack sympathized with his dilemma.

"You are free to go,"
Cyrus said.

"Excuse me?" Daniel
said.

"These men will
escort you to the gate," Cyrus replied, gesturing to the soldiers.

"And my friends?"

The magistrate's
eyebrow lifted imperiously at Daniel's referral to Jack as his
friend. "As I said, his punishment is your prerogative."

"He comes with me,"
Daniel said. "And Teal'c?"

"Of course, he too
will be released. Your belongings will be returned to you once you
are outside the city. We had hoped to avoid further chaos," he
said, his distaste for their dramatics evident.

Jack would show him
chaos. They should know it was a mistake to let Jack O'Neill
anywhere on this planet while he was armed. He would burn the whole
goddamned place down.

Probably aware of his
thoughts, Daniel sent Jack a significant glance, his eyes darting
towards the river. 'Don't do anything stupid,' he seemed to
project, 'we have to think of Sam.'

Jack forced himself to
calm. Daniel was right. She wasn't dead until he saw her body
himself.

"We would like to
leave immediately," Daniel said.

"Release the prisoner
and collect their belongings," he ordered. Turning to Daniel he
said, "I am sorry we could not reach an accord."

Daniel's jaw visibly
clenched against his anger, his words surprisingly calm when he
spoke. "Oh, don't worry. This isn't over."

It was the closest Jack
had ever heard Daniel get to an outright threat of violence.

Cyrus didn't quite
seem to get that though, nodding his head solemnly. "You and your
people will always be welcome in Timgad."

Teal'c appeared the
next moment, sparing them the need to reply to that delusional
statement. It was time to get the hell out of Dodge.

The trip out of the
city was indeterminably long, and even though Jack knew the
streetcars moved with a set speed, he didn't remember them being
quite that slow. Once they reached the end of the line, the soldiers
seemed content to stroll from the tram station to the city gate, no
matter how often Daniel demanded they move faster.

They all treated Daniel
with an indifferent sort of pity that was clearly driving him insane.
But at least he wasn't walking bound at gunpoint like Jack and
Teal'c. Anytime Jack had tried to encourage a bit more velocity,
he'd just ended up with a swift jab to his ribs that only wasted
more time. He kept his mouth firmly shut after that, letting Daniel
explain the situation to Teal'c.

Finally, finally,
after what felt like hours but couldn't possibly have been more
than twenty minutes, the soldiers stacked their gear outside the
checkpoint and gladly dumped them on the road.

Jack spent the few
moments it took for Daniel to cut them free of their bindings imaging
creative ways to kill the arrogant bastards, abandoning them just as
quickly when he was finally able to push to his feet. Teal'c
automatically went over to their gear and began rifling through it.

"Daniel," Jack
said, pulling the other man aside. "I need you to get back to the
SGC and tell Hammond what's happened. Bring back search and rescue
and medics. Let them know the inhabitants are hostile and well
armed. Teal'c and I are going on ahead."

"Should we not wait
for backup, O'Neill?" Teal'c cautioned, coming to stand by
them.

There was logic there,
they could easily run across more resistance they couldn't handle,
but the logical part of his brain had ground to a halt long before
this. "No, we don't wait."

Daniel seemed relieved.
He took his pack from Teal'c and holstered his weapons.

"I want radio contact
every ten minutes until you get through the gate, Daniel," Jack
said. He didn't think Daniel would run into any issues on the
journey, judging on how he'd been treated so far, but sending him
off alone, no matter how necessary, still made Jack a little jumpy.

"I will, " Daniel
promised, taking off at a run down the road, disappearing around the
first bend into the forest.

"I have inventoried
Major Carter's belongings," Teal'c said. "Only her knife is
not present."

Jack didn't know why
the possibility of her being armed made any difference at all, let
alone why it raised such a bubble hope in him, but at this point he
would take anything he could get.

She was strong. She'd
survive. The alternative didn't bear considering.

Jack slid on his vest,
grabbed his weapons and ammo, and even though he didn't want to
bother with his pack, he slipped it on, knowing he might need it even
if it slowed him down.

Teal'c picked up
Carter's gear and they jogged down the road after Daniel. Once
they were out of sight of the city, Teal'c dumped Carter's stuff
behind a tree.

"The river is this
way," Teal'c said, pointing to the right of the road. They both
took off at a run, splitting up ten minutes later when they finally
reached the water, Teal'c heading downstream while Jack went up.

It was rough going, no
clear paths other than the odd game run and Jack didn't dare move
too quickly for fear that he might miss her. Down here the river had
widened measurably, the banks following a much more gradual incline.
Even the water didn't seem quite as treacherous, but that didn't
make him feel any better.

It was when he caught
sight of a large animal dam of some kind stretching almost a quarter
of the way across the river on the other side that his eye was first
caught by something. Sliding down to the water's edge, he stepped
up on a boulder, craning his neck. There was definitely something
there, just above the dam and a few feet up the bank. He jumped off,
pushing up stream for a better vantage point. Whipping out his
binoculars he caught sight of green fatigues and a flash of gold.

"Teal'c!" he
yelled into his radio. "I found her, about two and a half klicks
up river. She's on the opposite shore."

"I am on my way,"
Teal'c replied.

Jack had already
dropped his pack to the ground, pulling out a length of rope. The
river was slightly slower at this point, but still a good 40 meters
across. Tying the rope to a large tree on the shore, he waded in.

The water hit him like
a solid wall, the temperature hovering barely above freezing if the
pain in his legs was anything to judge by.

By the time he had
struggled halfway across, Teal'c made his position. When the water
rose a little too high, knocking Jack sideways, the rope pulled taut,
Teal'c having taken up the slack. He didn't even take the time
to glance back in thanks.

He was close enough now
to see that Carter was lying on her stomach, but there was no way to
tell what sort of shape she was in so he just kept trudging as best
he could, trying not to think too hard about how still she was.

He stumbled on the
rocks in his haste to cover the last distance, his shin slamming hard
against the edge, something snapping in his knee. He swore loudly,
forcing himself back to his feet and pulling himself up onto the bank
next to her.

He pressed his fingers
to her neck, not feeling anything with the numbed digits for far too
long before he finally registered the steady beat of her pulse.

Grabbing her shoulder,
he rolled her onto her back. He registered a flash of steel and his
hand automatically reached out to block the thrust of the knife,
falling forward over her, their hands slamming down into the dirt.

Even half dead after
jumping into a river, she was still fighting.

"Sir," she breathed
in surprise, releasing the knife.

Jack reached blindly
for his radio, nearly shouting into it. "She's alive, Teal'c,
but she definitely needs a medic. Get to the gate and escort them
back quick."

"I understand,
O'Neill." The raw relief in his voice belied the calm
response.

Jack's hands were
already methodically checking her for injuries, his eyes taking in
every bruise. The nastiest wound seemed to be her shoulder, an
obvious compound fracture, bone pushing sickly through the skin. He
tried not to think about how lucky she was not to sustain that kind
of an injury to a more vital part of her body. There was also a head
wound that was bleeding freely. Frankly, he was surprised she was
even conscious, let alone that she had managed to drag herself this
far up the bank and keep herself armed.

The overwhelming power
of his relief was almost too much to handle, the sheer terror of
watching her step back off that platform still making him dizzy.
Anger was much easier.

"What the hell were
you thinking?" he yelled as he rooted around in his vest for some
gauze.

He hadn't really
expected her to answer. He should have known better.

"I was thinking that
the probability of me surviving a little swim in the river was higher
than you surviving a firing squad," she replied through chattering
teeth as if explaining rudimentary logic to a four-year-old.

"Yes, sir," she
said with smile that ended up more of a grimace as she started
coughing, deep, hacking coughs that shook her entire body. Jack
wrapped his arm around her back, holding her up as best he could as
she shuddered through it.

"Oh, God," she
sputtered when the coughing finally abated, collapsing back against
the bank again.

"Broken ribs?' Jack
asked, gently pressing gauze against the gash on her forehead.

"Oh, yeah," she
confirmed, her face becoming even paler and her eyes losing focus.

There was far too much
possibility for internal injuries for his comfort. "I need you to
stay with me, Carter," he said, his hand cupping her face.

"I'm not…planning
on going anywhere," she said, her voice sluggish, but she reached
out with her good arm, her wrist raw from the bindings she had
managed to escape from, and grabbed his arm, her grip reassuringly
strong.

He took her cold
fingers in his, trying to rub warmth back into them for lack of
anything else useful to do. "Where the hell are they?" he
mumbled, looking back over his shoulder.

"Jack," she said,
squeezing his hand.

He stilled, looking
down at her and he couldn't for the life of him resist doing the
one thing that had gotten them into this fiasco in the first place.
Leaning over her, he pressed his cheek against her hair, letting
himself absorb the reality that she was alive. He pressed a kiss to
her forehead, felt her lean into the touch.

He remained there,
hovering over her with her hand in his until he finally heard the
splash of the rescue team on the other side of the river. He pulled
away to secure the end of his rope to a tree, forming a guideline
across the river for them to follow.

"Let's get you
home, Carter."

They came across no
resistance on the planet on the way back to the Stargate, and Daniel
posited it was because Sam's survival meant the gods forgave her of
her sins. She'd probably even be welcomed back into the city with
no problems.

Sam, overhearing this
from her position on a stretcher and pretty fuzzy from the painkiller
administered by the medics, still managed to succinctly declare it
would be a cold day in hell before she stepped foot on 'this
misogynistic backwater of a planet' ever again.

"Amen to that,"
Jack said.

Carter was whisked away
by a determined Janet as soon as they made it through the wormhole,
the rest of SG-1 left behind with the buzz of far too much adrenaline
and a sudden lack of anything useful to do.

"Ok, SG-1," Hammond
said as he sat down at the head of the table. "Care to tell me
what the hell happened out there?"

Hammond hadn't even
attempted to have this meeting until Carter was safely out of
surgery, wise enough to know the rest of SG-1 would be pretty useless
until then. She had been very lucky to avoid any internal bleeding,
but her shoulder had been a rather nasty mess to deal with. Six
hours of surgery later, she had been declared stable and Hammond
called the rest of SG-1 into the briefing room.

"Am I to believe
Major Carter's injuries are a result of being punished for
adultery?"

Jack grimaced. It was
time to pay the piper and he was so not looking forward to
this.

Daniel was the first to
speak. "When we first arrived on the planet, we discovered severe
penalties for unmarried woman traveling alone with men, so we let
them think I was her husband."

"I see," Hammond
said, more than aware of this far too common off world charade.

"Later that day Sam
and Jack met in the public gardens and someone must have
misunderstood what they saw. Either that, or even being alone with a
man other than her husband is considered criminal."

Jack didn't know if
Daniel was being deliberately obtuse or if he still didn't quite
believe the charges. His faith in them wasn't particularly
comforting. He sat in silence as Daniel and Teal'c laid out the
rest of the mishap in the simplest terms, sparing Jack the need to
speak.

When the long litany
was finally over, Hammond turned to Jack. "Anything to add,
colonel?"

Jack glanced at Daniel
before turning his attention to Hammond. If it was just his neck on
the line, he wouldn't care, but this was Carter's too. So he
took the opening Daniel gave him and flat out lied. It didn't
matter that it was really only a sin of omission.

"Just that we'd
better erase that address from the computers if you don't want me
going back and causing an intergalactic incident, sir," Jack
eventually said, letting Hammond assume his silence had been born of
his barely contained anger.

Hammond gave Jack one
of his tolerant smiles that seemed to say he was tempted to let him
go back just to see what he'd do to them, being rather pissed off
himself. "So noted. If that's all, you are dismissed."

When no one said
anything further, Hammond pushed out of his chair and disappeared
back into his office, leaving the three members of SG-1 alone.

Jack leaned across the
table, his voice low. "Daniel-."

Daniel shook his head,
cutting Jack off. "I think enough damage has been done without
dragging Sam's career into this, don't you think?"

That low, furious
whisper told Jack that Daniel knew he had just lied and was pissed as
hell about it. Jack didn't blame him.

Teal'c rose from his
chair, drawing the attention of both men. "I believe Dr. Fraiser
said Major Carter would awaken soon. Should we not be present when
that happens?"

It was impossible to
tell what Teal'c thought about the situation from his tone, but he
did manage a good job of reminding them both that some things were
more important than their anger right now.

"You two go ahead,"
Jack said.

Daniel peered
suspiciously at him. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to talk
to Hammond."

"And tell him what,
exactly?"

"Look," Jack said,
his hand lifting in defense. "I know you don't really believe it
right now, Daniel, but you can trust me to do what's right."

Daniel stared across
the table at him for a long moment, looking absolutely exhausted.
"Isn't that what got us into this in the first place?" With
that last jab, Daniel shoved back from the table and headed out into
the hall.

Jack sighed, looking up
at Teal'c. "Nothing to add, T?"

"I doubt I could say
anything on this subject of which you are not already well aware,
O'Neill."

Only Teal'c could so
succinctly blend disapproval with understanding. With a nod, he took
off after Daniel.

Jack sat at the table
another minute or two before he finally crossed the room to knock on
the general's door.

"What can I do for
you, colonel?" he asked when Jack entered.

Jack didn't see the
point in beating around the bush. "I'm afraid I need to step
down from my command of SG-1, sir."

Hammond leaned back in
his chair, not looking nearly as surprised as Jack would have liked.
"Is this about your injury?"

Jack shifted his weight
with a grimace. He'd managed to tear his damn ACL when he'd
fallen in the river. Just yet another insult offered by the mission
gone astronomically bad, but at least this one gave him a way to do
what needed to be done without killing Carter's career.

"I'm looking at
another surgery and at least six months of rehab," he said. "I'm
not sure how great the returns will be on that. We both know there
aren't too many guys my age still in the field to begin with."

Hammond smiled, nodding
his understanding. "I guess I can accept that. So this would be
for medical reasons."

Jack stared at the
general for a moment. He didn't relish the idea of lying to him,
respecting him too much, but the truth was dangerous. He didn't
want to put Hammond in that position.

"When you're no
longer capable of doing your job one hundred percent, you really owe
it to everyone to step aside, don't you think?"

Hammond regarded him
over his clasped hands. "I've always given you a lot of
latitude, Jack, because I trust you to know your own limits," he
answered almost as obliquely.

It was pretty amazing
how adept everyone around here had become at saying everything
without actually saying anything at all.

"I appreciate that,
sir," Jack said. "You're just going to have to trust me on this
one, too. I can't do the job anymore."

Hammond was smart
enough not to poke too deeply, simply nodding. "Fair enough. But
at least give me time to find some way to keep you involved, Jack."

"I'm not really
looking for a desk job, sir."

"I would imagine
not," Hammond said with obvious amusement. "Let me just say that
there are a few projects in the works I can't talk about yet. But
I definitely think one or two of them might catch your interest."

Despite himself, Jack
was intrigued and Hammond knew it too, judging by the self-satisfied
look on his face.

"Okay," Jack agreed
with a shrug. "I won't resign as long as I am officially off
SG-1 as of this moment."

"Fair enough.
Consider it done."

"Thank you, sir."

Hammond nodded, waving
Jack out of his office.

At the door, Jack
paused, looking back at the general. "One more thing, sir. When
you choose someone for command of SG-1, you'd be crazy not to
consider Carter. She's earned it."

Hammond was back to
looking dangerously thoughtful. "I'll keep that in mind," he
said, turning his attention to the files on his desk.

Jack closed the door.

It was quite late at
night by the time Jack had finished his paperwork and informed Daniel
and Teal'c of his decision to leave SG-1. It was only after both
had been dealt with that Jack allowed himself to head down to the
infirmary.

Unsurprisingly, Carter
was asleep, Teal'c seated off to one side of her bed. Jack touched
his shoulder. "Why don't you go get some sleep?"

Teal'c stood,
relinquishing his post. "We did not tell her of your decision,"
he said lowly.

Jack nodded in
understanding. "Thanks."

"Goodnight, O'Neill."

Jack took the seat
vacated by Teal'c, pulling it closer to the edge of the bed. He
propped his elbows on his knees, casting a critical eye over Carter,
noting her pale face and the large bulk of bandages over her shoulder
where a brace immobilized her right arm. There was also a cast on
her right wrist that she had dislocated in order to escape her bonds.

For the first time
since those soldiers had bullied their way into his room, Jack
finally allowed himself to feel all the horror of what had happened.
It was the one thing he'd always sworn he'd never let happen.
He'd let their feelings almost get her killed.

He lowered his head
into his hands, rubbing them across his face. He sat there like that
for a long time, until he felt the touch of a hand on his head. He
looked up to find Carter staring at him.

"Hey," he said with
a smile, pushing to his feet.

"Sir," she said,
her voice rough with sleep.

He held out the cup
from next to her bed, helping her take a few sips. She let her head
rest back against the pillows, her eyes blinking open and closed
slowly, as if she was on the verge of falling back asleep. After a
while, she focused back on him with a small smile.

Ah, Carter, the queen
of self-flagellation. He just gave her a look until she finally
dropped his gaze with a huff.

"Fine, we share,"
she conceded rather ungraciously.

He smiled, wise enough
not to comment on her grumpiness. With the day she'd had, he'd
be grumpy too.

She was quiet for a
while, her eyes slipping shut and Jack assumed she had fallen back
asleep. He'd just sat down again when she spoke again.

"It's hard to
believe it's over," she said, her voice soft with regret.

He felt something twist
painfully in his gut, his hands tensing against his thighs. "You'll
be back on your feet in no time, giving Anubis hell, I have no
doubt," he said, his tone carefully light.

"That's not what I
meant." She turned her head toward him, her eyes sliding open. "I
just…can't imagine SG-1 without you."

He pushed to his feet.
"Look, I know none of this is what you wanted."

Now it was her turn to
give him an arch look.

"It's messy as
hell…," he admitted.

Her hand slid down the
sheet, brushing against his. "We always knew it would be."

"Personally, I don't
have a problem with messy," he said, his hand wrapping around hers.

"I just hope it's
worth it for you," she said, dropping his gaze even as her hand
tightened around his.

He leaned over the edge
of her bed and trailed a finger across her forehead, brushing back a
strand of her hair. "I'm not so worried about that either."

She looked up at him,
something terribly vulnerable in her eyes as she searched his
expression.

"Okay," she
eventually said.

Jack smiled, sitting
back in his chair, not letting go of her hand. "Why don't you
get some sleep?"

She nodded, her eyes
drifting closed. A few minutes later on the edge of sleep, she
jerked back awake, her eyes searching him out. Finally settling on
him, she looked like she wanted to say something.

"I'm not going
anywhere," he said, his thumb rubbing across the back of her hand.

She looked a little
embarrassed, but reassured, letting her eyes close again.

She slept the rest of
the night and true to his promise, Jack never moved out of his chair.

Hours later, as the
base first began to stir awake, Daniel appeared, wordlessly handing
Jack a cup of coffee. His eyes darted to their hands, still entwined
against the sheets.

Jack waited for some
comment, some sign of Daniel's mood, but the other man simply
shrugged and brought another chair to the other side of Carter's
bed, settling in to share the next few hours of bedside vigil.

By the time Carter woke
a while later, Teal'c had also arrived, the three men sprawled
around her bed, generally making a nuisance of themselves and not
caring in the slightest.

Carter smiled at each
of them in turn, her soft laughter filling the space as Daniel
expertly distracted her from her discomfort, Teal'c occasionally
chiming in as he stood at the foot of her bed, one hand resting
lightly against her leg.

When she turned to Jack
with a warm smile on her face, he decided messy as hell might just be
the way he preferred it.

He smiled.

The End

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